Military

Further Reading

The Gerakan Mujahideen Islam Pattani (GMIP) also known as the Pattani Islamic Mujahideen Movement, or the Pattani Islamic Holy Warriors Movement, is said to be possibly the only significant armed band operating in the lower South of Thailand. Its intention may be little different from simply seeking a breakaway of the four provinces at the Malaysian border. Since the September 11 terror attacks on the United States, the international terror group al-Qaeda has injected money and insurgency know-how into militant groups in various countries enabling them to climb out of their dormant state and grow rapidly. Thai military inntelligence sources suspect that, in the attempts to annex southern Thailand, Kumpulan Mujahideen Malaysia, based in Trengganu, helped to revive the local separatist groups GMIP and Barisan Revelusi Nasional (BRN). With support from the Malaysian militants, GMIP and BRN have been transformed into insurgency groups with a regional agenda departing from their past goal of carving out a Pattani state.

Malaysia's Al-Ma'unah wants to set up an Islamic state in Malaysia. Laskar Jihad and the Islamic Defenders Front want an Islamic state in Indonesia. Abu Sayyaf and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front want to form an independent Muslim state in the Muslim enclave of Mindanao in southern Philippines, while Barisan Revolusi Nasional and Gerakan Mujahiddin Islam Pattani want to do so in southern Thailand.